Car Stories

Shopping on the right auto websites can make all the difference

Researching and shopping online for a new or used car can be challenging – so many auto websites and so little time.

But identifying and using the right auto websites can help you. A lot.

The experience with websites such as Edmunds.com, AutoTrader.com and Kelley Blue Book is so important, in fact, that it can influence the likelihood that you’ll reach out to a dealership afterward.

So, for the third straight year, J.D. Power, the marketing information services firm, conducted a study of third-party auto websites, ranking 16 of them on a 1,000-point customer-satisfaction scale based on information/content, appearance, navigation and response time.

They also give the auto websites Power Circle Ratings to make it a bit easier to interpret the results.

Of 16 auto websites evaluated by J.D. Power, the 11 that rated at three circles or above were:

Five circles (the equivalent of five stars): NADAguides (768 points) and Cars.com (763).

Three circles: U.S. News Best Cars (750 points), Carsdirect.com (749), Kelley Blue Book (743) and MSN Autos (740) – the last two despite falling just below the industry average in the evaluation.

“When shopping online, a positive automotive third-party website experience can influence shoppers’ inclination to reach out directly to a dealer to request information about the vehicle they are researching,” said Arianne Walker, an automotive media and marketing executive at J.D. Power.

How big a difference can it make to have a five-circle experience compared to, say, a two-circle experience, the lowest rating among the 16 websites?

“Vehicle shoppers who are highly satisfied with their shopping experience on an automotive third-party website are 10 times more likely to request information from a dealership than those who have a poor shopping experience,” according to the J.D. Power study.

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